It is common today that, at the sales or checkout counters of supermarkets and other like retail establishments, items or articles purchased by a customer are customer-carried or otherwise transported from the store in flexible bags typically formed, by way of example, of a nonelastic plastic material. These bags are generally provided by the supermarket or other store and are often packed or filled, by hand, directly by the customer. This is a particularly uncomfortable operation, requiring a great deal of time and patience from the customer who must hold the bag open with one hand while moving articles, one after another, from a moving transport belt or checkout counter surface and into the bag. These bags are, furthermore, conventionally provided to the store or checkout station in the form of stacked packs or as continuous strips of bags so that the customer must, in addition, physically detach or separate each bag from the pack or strip prior to attempting to manipulate his or her purchases into the bag. Such operations are generally, and not incorrectly, perceived by the customer as a nuisance and a waste of time and are therefore often deleterious to the customer's attitude toward and relations with the supermarket or other establishment.